Review: Le Relais de Venise L’Entrecôte

In their Parisian restaurant Le Relais de Venise L’Entrecôte have offered a unique dining experience for over 50 years. Customers visit Le Relais de Venise L’Entrecôte for one dish, and one dish only – steak frites, served with a secret recipe sauce.

With no need for a menu the only decision you need to make is whether you’d like your steak Blue, Rare, Medium or Well done (although, if you were to choose well done, you may get looked at funny).

To get things rolling, we ordered a bottle of house red.

Shortly after taking our first sip of wine, we were served french bread and green salad dressed with chopped walnuts and mustard vinaigrette. I was a little disappointed that the bread wasn’t served with butter and the salad was a little over-drenched in dressing for my likely, but it certainly wet the palette.

The steak frites is then served in two sittings so that it doesn’t get cold. In French, the word entrecôte denotes a premium cut of beef used for steaks. A traditional entrecôte comes from the rib area of the carcass, corresponding to the steaks known in different parts of the English-speaking world as rib, rib-eye, club, Scotch fillet, or Delmonico. My dining partner and I ordered our entrecôte rare!

I’m pleased to say we made a good choice ordering it rare – the texture and flavour was perfection. Sliced into easy to handle portions that saves you the trouble of craving away with a steak knife, the meat was juicy and perfectly sealed on the outside drawing the flavours of the grill out. Impeccably cooked and smothered in a secret butter sauce that’s creamy and smooth complimenting the natural flavours of the red meat.

Served alongside a mountain of shoe-string fries, I’m not sure who’s appetite wouldn’t be beaten – alas for those of you with hollow legs you’re welcome to order more frites at no extra cost.

We felt the meal was very reasonably priced considering how full we were let alone how exquisite the quality of the steak frites is. There are three Le Relais De Venise restaurants for you to choose from in London, Marylebone, in The City (near St. Pauls) and Canary Wharf. They only have two other restaurants in the world, one in Paris and the other in New York – so we’re really spoilt to have three in London!

Do bare in mind, that whatever the weather, time or day you can’t book at Le Relais De Venise and it does get busy. So be prepared to queue or try and catch an early lunch or dinner sitting to avoid getting so hungry in the queue that you wolf down your meal without appreciating the true perfection that is entrecôte.